It is no secret that many African-American women are not deemed to be very well-represented, or at the forefront in terms of publicity, when it comes to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related jobs and advancements. Due to this “finding,” many companies in these industries, such as Google and Non-Profits such as MotherCoders have started programs and initiatives to aid women and minorities in the pursuit to learn coding.
I will admit, I am am not technologically savvy. The only thing I know about computers, technology, apps and coding, is that if I have a question about anything remotely pertaining to the previously mentioned, I ask Arisha Smith, Vice President of Marketing at Pigeonly, a tech startup in the downtown Las Vegas tech hub that got its start through the Silicon Valley-based NewMe Accelerator program.
As many business owners have leaned on the internet, apps and other new found technologies to build, increase and further their businesses, I still reach out to Arisha to gain an understanding of how technology can help not only my practice, but also the business ventures of my clients.
When I asked Arisha to explain the importance of women garnering an interest in technology and ultimately learning coding, she offered the following:
“Knowing how to code trains your mind to think logically and process bite sized tasks in order to achieve a larger end goal. Understanding the backbone of technology, which is programming, accelerates a woman’s path to leadership in organizations, especially in forward-thinking companies.”
She further states, “You’re able to get right to the point when directing or managing projects with cross functional teams because you eliminate the need for the tech guys to feel the need to ‘break down concepts’ for you. It also allows you the ability to call folks out on their BS and keep projects afloat.”
If you, or any young woman you know, are interested in learning how to code, click here for several programs that may assist you.
article by Rashida Maples, Esq. via hellobeautiful.com
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According to bet.com, just four days after a gunman opened fire in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the historic house of worship reopened its doors for Sunday service.
To quote the article:
With church members, visitors and members of the Charleston community in attendance, the congregation showed its strength this morning, as it has many times before, while mourning the loss of nine members and honoring them through praise, worship and unity.
South Carolina’s governor and Charleston’s mayor sat in the front row. Rev. Norvel Goff started the service off saying, “This is our house of worship. The doors of the church are open, praise be to God.”
While reflecting on the pain inflicted on the congregation by the violent and senseless act of Dylann Storm Roof, Rev. Goff went through the bevy of emotions that everyone has been feeling, including anger, and asked how people should respond to moments like this. “Do we respond by being afraid? Or do we respond in faith?”
But despite increased security and additional visitors, Mother Emanuel’s Sunday service was a fairly normal one full of love, support and compassion for the church community as they prepare to rebuild once again.
Gunman Roof was apprehended on June 18, is currently jailed and being held on $1 million bond.
“I was really scared because I thought I was going to get burned,” said Isiah, who dreams of being a firefighter. “I was nervous because there was so much smoke it was hard for me to see.”
The boys rescued a 1-year-old and an 8-month-old by tucking the babies under their arms and running outside. The homeowner told the boys there were no more children inside — possibly to keep them safe — but firefighters also rescued a 2 year old and a 5 year old from the burning home. They were both in critical yet stable condition.
Orange County investigators suspect a cook stove ignited the blaze, but they haven’t confirmed their suspicion nor determined another cause of the fire.
Isiah said he is still determined to become a firefighter.
“Even though I have to go through all this hard work, I still want to be one,” he said.
article by Annika Harris via uptownmagazine.com
Today, Ivy Taylor began her first official day as the elected mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Taylor is the first African-American to fulfill the role.
This development comes almost a year after Taylor was selected to serve as the interim mayor of the city to finish the term of the previous mayor, Julian Castro. Castro stepped down from his position as mayor of San Antonio when the White House nominated him as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Taylor won in the race against her opponent, former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, with 52 percent of the vote. Taylor was born and bred in Queens, NY. She got her start in city planning, then made her way to city council. Taylor got her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her master’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
article by Monique John via hellobeautiful.com
In a statement released Monday afternoon, embattled Spokane, Washington NAACP president Rachel Dolezal resigned from her post amidst a scandal surrounding her racial identity.
Dolezal, whose parents claim she pretended to be a Black woman although she is biologically White, was scheduled to attend a meeting during which she was expected to address the controversy that has sparked a heated national debate about what it means to be “transracial.” The NAACP canceled the Monday meeting.
Last week, the organization said it has a tradition of receiving support from people of all colors and creeds, something Dolezal echoed in her resignation statement, which she posted to Facebook.
“It is with complete allegiance to the cause of racial and social justice and the NAACP that I step aside from the Presidency and pass the baton to my Vice President, Naima Quarles-Burnley,” she wrote.
“Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights and will do everything in my power to help and assist, whether it means stepping up or stepping down, because this is not about me. It’s about justice. This is not me quitting; this is a continuum. It’s about moving the cause of human rights and the Black Liberation Movement along the continuum from Resistance to Chattel Slavery to Abolition to Defiance of Jim Crow to the building of Black Wall Street to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and into a future of self-determination and empowerment.”
And while we’re talking about Rachel Dolezal, it’s come to light that she sued Howard University in 2002 claiming “discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Professor Alfred Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.
article by Christina Coleman via hellobeautiful.com
Last week, the organization said it has a tradition of receiving support from people of all colors and creeds, something Dolezal echoed in her resignation statement, which she posted to Facebook.
“It is with complete allegiance to the cause of racial and social justice and the NAACP that I step aside from the Presidency and pass the baton to my Vice President, Naima Quarles-Burnley,” she wrote.
“Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights and will do everything in my power to help and assist, whether it means stepping up or stepping down, because this is not about me. It’s about justice. This is not me quitting; this is a continuum. It’s about moving the cause of human rights and the Black Liberation Movement along the continuum from Resistance to Chattel Slavery to Abolition to Defiance of Jim Crow to the building of Black Wall Street to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and into a future of self-determination and empowerment.”
And while we’re talking about Rachel Dolezal, it’s come to light that she sued Howard University in 2002 claiming “discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Professor Alfred Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.
article by Christina Coleman via hellobeautiful.com
CHICAGO — Kenwood Academy‘s valedictorian, Arianna Alexander, wants to go to college to learn about business. As it turns out, she has a number of options.
“It was a lot to take in. I received emails, letters. It was just like, ‘Come here, come here!’ They were bombarding me with all this information,” Arianna said.
Arianna hails from Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. She graduated with a 5.1 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
She was accepted to 26 universities, including six Ivy League schools. Her scholarship offers total more than $3 million. “I feel like it means I can afford college and I don’t have to worry about it. I feel like that’s an issue for a lot of people my age,” Arianna said.
Her father encouraged her, after another Kenwood student was offered more than $1 million in scholarships a few years ago. “I planted the seed in Arianna’s mind that you can do the same thing. So when the process got started and a million was achieved, let’s go for two. I said let’s go for three and she did it,” said Pierre Alexander, Arianna’s father.
Arianna is the baby of the family. She has three older siblings. “It was a big blessing, because I’ve already put three through college. Now I don’t have to worry too much about her,” Pierre said.
Arianna has also picked a school, thanks to Paul Brush, one of her teachers. She plans to attend University of Pennsylvania. “He said, ‘Do you know about the Wharton School of Business?’ I said, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,'” Arianna said.
“As teachers, we have a big moment to play with the lives that we have in our classrooms,” Brush said.
Her family has also influenced her. Arianna recounted her dad’s words: “Work hard, pray on it, and don’t give up. No matter what happens, you did your best.”
“My wife and I have always stressed to her, if you do your best, you will be the best. So we try to make sure she upholds to that,” Pierre said.
“So as long as you work hard, I feel like there is always a way for you,” Arianna said.
After all, there is still more to achieve besides high school. “When she graduates from Penn, that will be a second goal. We expect bigger and better things for her,” he said.
Arianna said she wants to be an entrepreneur and plans to own four restaurants. She’s already working on the menus.
article by Stacey Baca via 7online.com
John Legend hasn’t been keeping quiet on police brutality or mass incarceration. Now, he is taking it a step further with his essay for Vulture speaking out on the suicide of Kalief Browder, the young man who spent three years on Rikers Island without a conviction.
Legend is justifiably upset about Browder’s treatment while incarcerated, and he recalls meeting him in 2013 after seeing him in a television interview.
From Vulture:
New York failed Kalief. The list of things that went wrong in his case begins with his first encounter with the NYPD, whose practice of targeting black teens is well documented. The idea that being accused of stealing a backpack would lead to his arrest and detention would be absurd if it weren’t actually tragic. He should not have been tried as an adult, or had prosecutors, defenders, and judges so overwhelmed with cases that he waited three years for trial, violating his constitutional right to swift justice. He should not have been held in an adult jail where he would spend 700 to 800 days of those three years in solitary confinement. He should not have spent one day being abused by guards or the others incarcerated there.
This Martin Luther King Day, Governor Cuomo publicly released findings from a task force he began last year to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the patterns and practices at Rikers violate the human rights of adolescent males in jail. Rikers shouldn’t even have a youth unit. The RNDC, where Kalief spent three years, where 18-year-old Kenan Davis hanged himself this week, should not exist. Right now legislators in Albany are considering legislation that would end the automatic prosecution of 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, and remove youths like Kalief from Rikers and other jails throughout the state. Kalief died because our system is broken, and lawmakers can act now to stop tragedies like this in the future.
Read Legend’s entire essay here.
article by Ariel Cherie via theurbandaily.com
A new report from Coalition for the Homeless reveals that the number of unsheltered homeless people in the Houston area has dropped by 46 percent since 2011.
The statistics come from a “point-in-time” count of people who were experiencing homelessness on January 29, 2015, in the greater Houston area (Harris County and Fort Bend County) in Texas. The annual canvass found that there were 4,609 people either staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing or safe havens, or unsheltered (living in places not meant for human habitation, such as abandoned buildings or under bridges). In 2011, that number was 8,538. This puts the current homeless rate at 1 out of every 1,130 residents. That number was 1 out of every 450 residents in 2011. Just under 60 percent of those displaced citizens are black.
“It’s incredible,” said Marilyn Brown, president and CEO of Coalition for the Homeless in the Houston Chronicle’s article available behind the newspaper’s paywall. “When we see the result—that the number of homeless has been cut in half—we see we’ve gone from managing homelessness to ending it.” With 58 percent of the total homeless population installed in some type of housing, all signs point to that being true.
The coalition of homeless services providers said their success stems from the The Way Home, a local collaborative model adopted in 2012 with the goal of eradicating homelessness by installing permanent housing units and creating a coordinated intake, needs assessment and triage system that gets people the help they need more efficiently.
article by
“It’s incredible,” said Marilyn Brown, president and CEO of Coalition for the Homeless in the Houston Chronicle’s article available behind the newspaper’s paywall. “When we see the result—that the number of homeless has been cut in half—we see we’ve gone from managing homelessness to ending it.” With 58 percent of the total homeless population installed in some type of housing, all signs point to that being true.
The coalition of homeless services providers said their success stems from the The Way Home, a local collaborative model adopted in 2012 with the goal of eradicating homelessness by installing permanent housing units and creating a coordinated intake, needs assessment and triage system that gets people the help they need more efficiently.
article by
Mr. Mooney, who teaches freshman English at High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J., played Mr. Lamar’s album (edited, of course) “To Pimp a Butterfly” to draw correlations to Ms. Morrison’s novel.
Using a literary lens called “hip-hop ed” that he learned during his graduate courses at Teachers College at Columbia University, Mr. Mooney asked his students to reflect on the dichotomy of black culture in America — the celebration of itself and its struggle with historic oppression. His students’ sudden understanding shined through essays, colorful canvases and performance art.
Mr. Mooney, 29, blogged about his curriculum and shared his students’ work online. The blog racked up over 10,000 Facebook shares, and hardly a month passed before Mr. Lamar discovered it.
On Monday, Mr. Lamar not only became a guest lecturer in Mooney’s small classroom at High Tech, but he also became a pupil. Mr. Lamar’s manager sent a note to Mr. Mooney in April saying the performer was interested in visiting. He did not charge a fee, but the school and its foundation paid for the stage setup.
“I was feeling incredibly grateful and humbled that my work received that much exposure and reached that wide of an audience that Kendrick himself read it,” Mr. Mooney said.
“He came to the call out of control,” Conley said, adding: “I had 12 officers on the scene, and 11 of them performed according to their training.”
A bystander’s video, which garnered millions of views on YouTube, showed Casebolt shouting and cursing at teenagers who did not appear to be acting violently or aggressively, with Casebolt wrestling some black teenagers to the ground.
Officials said residents had called the police to complain about an out-of-control party and fighting. Some teenagers said they had permission to be at the pool and said residents had harassed them. The incident prompted a protest Monday as police promised to investigate Casebolt’s actions.